{"id":67102,"date":"2026-07-08T17:24:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T09:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=67102"},"modified":"2026-07-08T17:24:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T09:24:58","slug":"mario-kart-tour-shutting-down-after-7-years-nintendo-confirms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=67102","title":{"rendered":"Mario Kart Tour Shutting Down After 7 Years, Nintendo Confirms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Nintendo will shut down smartphone racer Mario Kart Tour this September, after seven years of service.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">A notice posted on social media this morning revealed that the iPhone and Android game will cease operating on September 29 at 11pm Pacific time. The game originally launched in September 2019, and is one of Nintendo&#8217;s few remaining mobile games still in operation.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;We sincerely thank the many players who have loved and supported the game since service began so long ago,&#8221; Nintendo wrote in a blog post with a few more details on the game&#8217;s demise. &#8220;Thank you for playing Mario Kart Tour.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-slideshow\"><button type=\"button\" style=\"display:none\" class=\"jsx-2228525885\"\/><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">Every Mario Kart Game, Ranked<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img alt=\"If you know anything about gaming, you probably know the name \u2018Mario Kart.\u2019 Since 1992, the series has been a pillar of Nintendo\u2019s output and a quintessential example of the company\u2019s \u201ceasy to pick up, difficult to master\u201d philosophy. The series has now become so popular that it\u2019s arguably eclipsed the Mario platformers as the principal arena from which people know the red-capped Italian plumber.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#10;&#10;The series began back on the SNES with Super Mario Kart, which introduced a formula that fans fawn over to this day. But while the core of that first game has remained intact over the years, many of the components have been completely reinvented with the series\u2019 latest title, Mario Kart World for the Switch 2. With that new game now out in the wild, it's a great time to look back on each game in the series to see how they iterate on the formula, how they reflect the state of Nintendo at the time of their release, and whether or not they hold up to this day. Here\u2019s every Mario Kart game, ranked.\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3381835873 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/RightChevron.272be43c.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"\/><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Nintendo shutting down its smartphone games is nothing new \u2014 many of them have now been scrapped. But Mario Kart Tour lasted longer than most, fed into development of tracks for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe&#8217;s Switch expansion pass, and was \u2014 for a while, at least \u2014 extremely lucrative.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The financial success of Mario Kart Tour was initially marred in controversy, however, as it relied on gacha-style mechanics to unlock new karts and characters. After significant backlash, Nintendo replaced this system with a more standard item shop in 2022, as well as a subscription service.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Today, the sale of in-game currency has now been suspended, as have automatic renewals for the game&#8217;s Gold Pass subscription. All players will soon be able to enjoy subscription-level benefits for the remainder of the game&#8217;s life.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">However, unlike the shutdown of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Nintendo is not preparing a standalone offline edition of the game for players to switch over to after Mario Kart Tour&#8217;s servers shut down. &#8220;An offline version is not scheduled for release,&#8221; reads an extremely brief FAQ page on the matter. It&#8217;s a shame, as this will leave several Mario Kart tracks unique to the game unplayable forever. <\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-video\"\/><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Perhaps the lack of an offline version is down to the fact that Mario Kart World is seen as a key driver for the uptake of Switch 2 \u2014 and Nintendo would much rather you purchase a console to play that, whereas an all-new Animal Crossing game still seems years away. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Regardless, with Mario Kart Tour shutting down, Nintendo&#8217;s smartphone game catalog will shrink further. Fire Emblem Heroes and Shadows remain operational, as does Super Mario Run. And then there&#8217;s Pikmin Bloom, which is largely run by Pok\u00e9mon Go developer Niantic.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Still, Nintendo has not abandoned its smartphone ambitions entirely. Earlier this year it launched Pictonico!, an app that lets you turn images from your camera roll into WarioWare-style minigames.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Tom Phillips is IGN&#8217;s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky <\/em>@tomphillipseg.bsky.social<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/nintendo-confirms-mario-kart-tour-shutdown-after-7-years-no-offline-version-offered\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nintendo will shut down smartphone racer Mario Kart Tour this September, after seven years of service. A notice posted on social media this morning revealed&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1792,8619,1509,2830,8319,1262,59],"class_list":["post-67102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-confirms","tag-kart","tag-mario","tag-nintendo","tag-shutting","tag-tour","tag-years","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}